A sexual predator has been jailed for 15 years for 22 offences against six different victims since the 1980s.

A sexual predator has been jailed for 15 years for 22 offences against six different victims since the 1980s.

A judge told Brian Sturley, 56, he knew what he was doing to his victims “but simply did not care”.

He said the defendant “showed no sympathy or empathy” towards those he targeted.

Appearing via video link at Swansea Crown Court, Sturley broke down in tears and was seen clutching his head in his hands while rocking back and forth as Judge Christopher Vosper delivered the sentence.

Sturley, of Robert Street, Manselton, Swansea, had denied offences including rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child.

The judge said Sturley's victims had, for the most part, kept the crimes committed against them a secret.

But when one victim came forward in the spring of 2011 he said “the floodgates opened”.

The court heard how the defendant’s youngest victim, aged under 10 years old at the time, was forced to perform a sex act on Sturley in a car between 2001 and 2002.

But his catalogue of abuse began much earlier after the defendant moved to Swansea from London in 1985.

His first victim was between 12 and 15 when he “plied her with alcohol” and raped her in his home, re-enacting a scene from a pornographic film that he had forced the girl to watch.

The court was told his next victim, a teenager, was raped “about 10 times.”

Another girl, also a teenager, was also raped.

In 2009 he raped another girl, telling her in reference to an earlier incident: “I told you that you would pay.”

In mitigation, Sturley’s barrister, Ian Wright, told the court that his client had suffered a stroke and suffered from “issues relating to mobility, memory, depression and anxiety”.

He said Sturley was also suffering from diabetes and bronchial asthma.

Mr Wright said his client had “the ongoing support of his children” but said his 30-year marriage “was in jeopardy”.

Sturley had claimed a campaign had been orchestrated against him and told the jury his victims were trying to get compensation.

During his defence Sturley told the jury: “I think they’re all lying. It’s all lies what has been said here. It never happened. None of it.”

Prosecuting barrister, James Jenkins, had told the jury Sturley was a “sexual predator” who “groomed” his victims.

On September 25, a jury of 11 members had returned majority verdicts of guilty in 22 charges against the defendant after more than eight hours of deliberations.

Family members sitting in the public gallery broke down in tears as the verdicts were read.

Sturley was cleared of four other offences after Judge Vosper ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts on one charge of indecent assault with a child, between August 1983 and August 1984 and another of indecent assault between August 1988 and 1989.